Sometimes I get frustrated with writing. Not because I don’t enjoy the writing itself, but because I wish I were selling more. Of course, I don’t exactly write to market, so it’s not entirely unexpected that I don’t sell millions of copies.

But it occurred to me today as I received five emails from Amazon about payments I’m going to receive from different countries this month as well as my first ACX payment email (yay!), that it’s not nothing this little trickle of sales.

I haven’t published something new since January since I’ve been focusing on novels. And I haven’t really been busting it with promos either. And yet, little as it may be, I’m still selling, which is actually pretty damned cool.

When I quit writing and publishing for seven months back in 2014 due to job stress I had, I think, one sale during the entire period. Now if I had only one sale in a month I’d drop dead of shock.

So, as slow as my progress may be, it turns out it is in fact progress….And that’s good.

I try to see books as drilling tiny holes in a dyke. The cost of making the hole (writing, editing, cover design, etc.) seems a lot for what you get, but once you’ve done it the water keeps draining without further effort. So, even if your hole doesn’t suddenly crumble opening a torrent, it’s doing something.

And, if you compare to the guideline that many successful businesses aren’t profitable for five years, the period of sales which a book has to repay the initial effort is long.